Betrayal (2022)
(Music from The Judas Tree)

Betrayal is an orchestral suite made from the music I wrote for Kenneth MacMillan’s last ballet, The Judas Tree. It had its première at the Royal Opera House in 1992.

When Kenneth asked me to collaborate with him on a new ballet for the Royal Ballet the main idea we discussed was betrayal. It was 1989 and the events at Tiananmen Square were very much in the news. Kenneth was also thinking about other classic stories of betrayal such as the Last Supper. We did not agree on a ‘story’ as such, and he refused categorically to provide me with a libretto or scenario as he made it plain that he did not want me to compose film music, but something that might be a work in its own right. This was very imaginative of Kenneth and intuitively he had understood me and the best way for me to work: to have free rein for my own ideas and for how I would want to develop the music.

We went on to devise an overall dramatic structure which, as it turned out, was reminiscent of the structure of many ancient Greek tragedies. This structure became an overall plan that I followed in both the original ballet and the making of this suite; they both fall into five sections that are performed without a break:

I. & II. UNREST/CALM

Opens with silence followed by quiet figuration on the bass clarinet which leads to repeated notes on the Steel Pan; this instrument has an obbligato role throughout. The music becomes more restless and then settles down for the next section.

III. OPTIMISM

Six lighter episodes – the fifth features the steel pan – lead to a slow movement that starts with a passage for solo oboe.

IV. BETRAYAL

The music here is loud and violent and gathers pace towards loud repeated tutti chords that are a transformation of the repeated notes on the steel pan at the beginning of the work. Quiet, fragmented chords on an unaccompanied harp close this section.

V. MASSACRE

This final movement begins with a reprise of the clarinet figuration at the very beginning of the piece and then returns to the violence of the previous episode. The work ends with very quiet harmonics and repeated notes on the steel pan.

This suite was made in 2022 and lasts for approximately 25 minutes.

The original ballet, The Judas Tree, was commissioned by The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and first performed there in March 1992, with designs by Jock MacFadyen.

B.E.
November 2024